Vyapam Case: SC to hear CBI’s plea to allow SIT to file charge sheets

New Delhi, (IANS) The Supreme Court will take up on July 20 the CBI’s plea to allow the Madhya Pradesh Special Investigation Team (SIT) overseeing the probe in the Vyapam scam to file charge sheets in cases where investigation has been completed.

This, the court was told, was necessary to thwart any attempt by the accused to seek “default bail” on the grounds of delay in filing charge sheet within 90 days of their arrest.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Arun Mishra, and Justice Amitava Roy said that they would take up the matter on July 20, after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh said 185 Vyapam cases that had to be transferred from the Special Investigation Team to the CBI as ordered by the apex court on July 9 would take time.

The ASG said any delay in filing the charge sheets within the stipulated 90 days could be taken advantage of by the accused for seeking “default bail”.

The apex court had on July 9 handed over the investigation into the Vyapam scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation involving government medical colleges.

The Congress on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Supreme Court reinstated Alok Verma as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director, saying he has been exposed for "destroying" the premier investigating agency.

The Congress on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Supreme Court reinstated Alok Verma as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director, saying he has been exposed for “destroying” the premier investigating agency.

“Modi adds another first to his list. After being the first Prime Minister to be exposed destroying the CBI before the Supreme Court, after having ruined the CVC’s (Central Vigilance Commission) credibility (requiring supervision by former SC judge), Modi has now become first Prime Minister to have his illegal orders set aside by the Supreme Court,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a series of tweets.

His remarks came soon after the Supreme Court judgment pronounced on a plea by Verma and NGO Common Cause challenging the government’s decision on the intervening night of October 23-24 to divest Verma of his charge as head of the investigating agency.

Reminding Modi that the government comes and goes but the integrity of the institutions survive, Surjewala hoped that the judgement would be a “lesson” to the Prime Minister about the strength of country’s democracy and the Constitution.

“Modiji please remember, governments have come and gone. Integrity of our institutions have survived. Let this be a lesson to you about the strength of our democracy and the Constitution. Let this be a lesson that howsoever despotic you may be, law catches up in the end,” he said.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Wikimedia

Firing salvo at Prime Minister, the Congress leader said: “After making CBI Chief suffer the consequences of your illegal decision for three months, will you show the courage to return three months of lost tenure? Unless you are afraid of investigation into Rafale scam.

“Modi equals to ‘Muzzling of Democratic Institutions’. First, you lose four economic advisors in a row including two RBI Governors. Second, four Supreme Court judges go public on Judge (B.H.) Loya, then you destroy credibility and competence of the CBI and CVC. This is your model of ‘minimum governance, maximum government’,” he added.